Poetry Landmarks

St Andrews: the Poetry Capital of Scotland

(Associated Place)

Details:

The town of St Andrews - where StAnza: Scotland's Poetry Festival takes place every March - can easily claim to be the poetry capital of Scotland. Here's why...

As well as hosting the only major Scottish international poetry event, the town has many connections with poets of note - from Edwin Muir last century, going back to Andrew Lang, Robert Fergusson and William Dunbar. On top of this the principal Scottish poet of last century - Hugh MacDiarmid - lived in the town in the early part of last century.

On top of that, the university is home to the UK largest building (other than libraries) dedicated to poetry. This is Poetry House, part of the University of St Andrews School of English. This is home to 5 of the country's leading contemporary poets - John Burnside, Robert Crawford, Douglas Dunn, Kathleen Jamie & Don Paterson - all of whom work for the School of English and live in the vicinity of the town.

St Andrews is also where two noted Scottish poetry journals are published. These are "Verse" and "The Red Wheelbarrow". As well as this the University Open Association runs regular sessions of poetry workshops throughout the winter.

We at StAnza feel that these elements easily qualify St Andrews to be seen as the Poetry Capital of Scotland.